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Secondary water pump issues.

I have a new Bosch secondary water pump that I tested before installing. The pump works on the bench but I'm not getting any current to it after shutting down the engine. I tested it at normal operating temp as well.

I wanted to test the relay and I found it in Bentley but not in the van.
Where is the relay?

I doubt that the relay is the problem but I don't know where else to look.

Also, I have done the temp/fuel gauge fix in the dash cluster board and I have good continuity at the 3 solders to the socket of the voltage regulator. Temp gauge still runs low when the engine is normal temp.

I forget exactly which one it is but the relay is one of the ones in the "add on" row in the fuse/relay panel. The bottom two rows of the panel are part of the main panel and then there are some ones above that that are clipped onto the main panel. It's one of the ones up there.

The relay outputs 12V+ when the ignition is off and never when it's on. When off, the 12V+ output is then switched on/off to the pump via the thermoswitch. The thermoswitch is rather inexpensive and you may want to consider just replacing it blindly since it's so cheap. It's in the fitting that comes out of the head between cylinders 1 and 2 and it's the 4-pin sensor (the 2-pin one is for the ECU).

I have found that this time of year it's not that uncommon for the pump to not-run. I live in SoCal and on typical days even in our "warm" climate at freeway speeds I'm sometimes lucky if the dash gauge reads much past 160F anyway and this often doesn't make the pump kick in when I park the van.

The thermostat housing has no sensors; the thermostat on these vans is actually in the lower radiator hose connection where it goes into the block waaaaay down low.

The housing coming out of the head though (which looks like a thermostat housing on most cars but on this one houses nothing but two sensors) are where the ECU temperature sensor is (2-wire) and the dash gauge/coolant after-run pump sensor (4-wire IIRC) are.

I don't remember the specifics of removing it other than I don't have any recollection of it being unusually difficult or needing anything special even though the space is a bit tight. I must have gotten it out with typical hand tools. Maybe I did it with a closed-end wrench if depth was a problem for a rachet-socket combo.

The trichotomy of low coolant temp, poor cabin heat, and no aux pump after run was fixed with another new thermostat. I pulled out the new 80C and replaced with a Behr 87C t-stat. Now the temp gauge goes 1/3 up the dial, the heater is blazing hot in 15 minutes, and the aux pump kicks on after shut down with the coolant >170F.

I used a 10mm box on the t-stat housing bolt that is behind the AC compressor. That was a little tedious but other than that the r&r was a slam dunk.

The trichotomy of low coolant temp, poor cabin heat, and no aux pump after run was fixed with another new thermostat. I pulled out the new 80C and replaced with a Behr 87C t-stat. Now the temp gauge goes 1/3 up the dial, the heater is blazing hot in 15 minutes, and the aux pump kicks on after shut down with the coolant >170F.

I used a 10mm box on the t-stat housing bolt that is behind the AC compressor. That was a little tedious but other than that the r&r was a slam dunk.

And thanks again for the help gti matt!

For such a small underhood space it leads one to believe these vans can run hot since the engine bay is crowded but the reality is their cooling systems are actually quite aggressive. The other thing that might be a factor is the plastic fins that cover the fans. They're supposed to be closed below a certain temperature to restrict airflow across the radiator for faster warmup. Mine are stuck open all the time (not sure why; I never cared to investigate because I'm not in a very cold climate so it doesn't bug me) so on cool-ish days my van takes forever to warm up (yes my t-stat is good...I replaced it not long ago with no change in warm up time).

Do you know at what temperature the fins close? Have you tried to repair yours?

Not sure at what temperature but I haven't tried to repair mine or investigate it much. Since I'm in a warmer climate for the most part (SoCal) it's not that important/urgent to me. But when I have the fans out to work on the engine later this month maybe I'll take a look at it.

I thought I would post a reply to this thread as well since my issue is similar. My van temp gauge has always run at half way or a tad above. One day my coolant after run pump decided to explode ( at the top of a ski mountain no less). So temporarily we by passed it, but since the pump wasn't connected my temp gauge didn't work. So my brother ( who is a mechanic) jumped the wires together and it got my gauge working again. Except now it always reads just below 3/4 mark. The fans turn on to start cooling at 3/4 mark, going down the road on the highway it is 3/4 mark. So I thought the gauge was just reading high ( the fans are coming on at 3/4). So then I got a new pump, put it in but i don't think it's working when the van turns off. Haven't 100% confirmed this yet. But I thought this would have got my temp gauge to read back at half way again ( I thought maybe there was some kind of resister on the pump) But it's still showing 3/4. I guess I will check the relay for the pump first but I'm also curious about why my gauge reads high.

Not sure about the gauge but assuming your pump is new and not defective, you might need a new thermoswitch or check the relay. The thermoswitch is pretty inexpensive. It's been my experience that on cooler days that the pump might not really turn on.

Wiring and relay locations may vary from year to year and possibly even within years, but on my '93 it was up high on the fuse/relay panel in one of the locations that looks like it's added on after the fact to the top of the panel.

In looking back at one of my earlier threads on this, I guesstimated it was the one with a '38' on it.

Thank Matt,
I don't have that part but I do see where it mounts on the fan housing. Where does the wiring connect into harness?. Without it the fins are always open which explains why the fans seem to be running often.